Iraq

A 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu, with a human head, the body of a bull, and the wings of a bird, has been unearthed in northern Iraq! Despite its large size, the sculpture was found largely intact, with only the head missing. The head was already in the collection of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, having been confiscated from smugglers in the 1990s. It was commissioned during the reign of King Sargon II who ruled from 722 to 705 BC and erected at the city's gates to provide protection. The head of the Lamassu sculpture was looted and smuggled abroad in the 1990s. During the Islamic State jihadist group's occupation of the area in 2014, residents of the village of Khorsabad hid the rest of the relief before fleeing to government-held territory, sparing it from destruction. Images: Zaid AL-OBEIDI

The missing body of the Lamassu has been found

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Dome of an old mosque in the foreground and a minarat in the background. Turkey.

Long before Silicon Valley, Islamic scholars in ancient Iraq created an intellectual hub that revolutionised science

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Long before Silicon Valley, Islamic scholars in ancient Iraq created an intellectual hub that revolutionised science

This chart depicts the evolution of the modern Latin alphabet from the earliest traces of alphabetic writing dating to the Middle Bronze Age according to archaeological findings. Matt Baker/Usefulcharts

Video – The History of the Alphabet

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Infographic video and blogpost on the History of Writing and the origin of the alphabet. From Egypt to Lebanon and rest of the world.

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